The Pakistani Spectator

My name is Shaunak Mukherjee, 21 hailing from Mumbai. I’m a Commerce graduate looking to pursue an MBA in marketing. I love to sketch and write, which is why I set up my blog Sublime Thoughts of a Creative Soul, where I pen down my thoughts as well as bits and pieces of creative writing.

Definitely. Writing allows me to read out my thoughts aloud. They come to life in front of my eyes whenever I write down something, be it a fantasy piece or something I really care about. Also, penning down my thoughts makes it easier to think things through. I’ve also started writing a vampire-werewolf story on my other blog Shadows of Light which I plan to continue soon.

The constant sharing of views and comments, reading what other bloggers write makes each post, each individual article unique and memorable in it’s own way. But the one person that made blogging memorable for me was the very talented and passionate blogger Kajal Singh. There was a passion, a fire in her writing that inspired me to write more and I thank her for that.

I comment on every post that I read and reply to comments that people leave on my blog. Also, quite a few of them end up on my list on Facebook or Gtalk. So keeping in touch isn’t that difficult.

Online marketing. The internet is supposedly at a high point right now, and there’s certainly a lot more to come. Politicians have started realizing this untapped power of social networking in marketing their cause or their campaign. The recent polls were proof to that, with internet portals sporting ads of politicians or political parties. Also, online and SMS polls are a big step in reaching out to people, which IDEA has recently converted into a great ad campaign.

Absolutely. As technology advances, so does networking media. People are inherently social and most would like to reach out to other like minded individuals to make themselves heard. Technology makes it easier to find such like minded people and bring them under one composite platform. Who wouldn’t like to respond to a topic that they’re interested in, right?

I guess this is a very frequently asked question on most social networking circles. Well, my answer is that my site is my own. It has my thoughts, my writing. My individuality, or personality, however you may put it, is present in my blog. This alone sets it apart from others. That’s what makes a site so unique, and hence refreshing.

Success is an amalgam of numerous things. I really cannot attribute success to one particular characteristic. But, I’ve always felt that instinct has played a big role in guiding me in my decisions. I think with my gut and follow it through.

I once read somewhere, “Live each day as if it were your last and you shall have no regrets.” and it rang true. My happiest moments are those that I spend in company of those I love. As for my gloomiest moment, well nothing specific comes to mind.

Now this one’s gonna take some time. I got literally LOADS!!

1. Wildlife Safari into Africa such as the Botswana safari
2. Scuba Diving in Cozumel, Mexico

3. Malaysia

The Lord of the Rings, definitely. Favourite book and favourite movie. Tolkien was a genius and he created an entire new world in such breathtaking detail that is difficult to comprehend. New races, new languages, his research made his writing appear almost impeccable.

Eyes. They’re the doors to the soul as they say. But the eyes do speak when the lips don’t. Also, on the first meet, how a person greets you tells a lot about a person. I tend to judge a lot by body language.

No. I’ve been lucky enough to have been encouraged to let loose my creative side. My parents and friends have always supported my writing and have given lots of constructive criticism to improve it.

One word comes to mind the moment you say it - AdSense. Blogs have space to put up ads and that’s where AdSense comes in. It works on a Pay-per-click system wherein the host gets paid each time someone clicks on an ad from an AdSense box placed on their site. A good way to monetise your blog or site.
One more is that now, commercial blogging is on the rise. People do get paid to write articles for sites. CampusJunkie out here in Mumbai is a very successful example of that.

Well, to start off, for anything to be successful, there has to be some time devoted to that. Especially initially, there’s a lot of effort involved to get a blog to be successful/popular. But it’s not necessarily a fact that a successful blog means the author has an awful lot of time at hand. Good social networking sense and decent content kept in mind, and keeping regular updates makes sure you don’t have to spend hours a day tending to your blog. After all, a blog’s a part of your life along with everything else.

It’s already happening isn’t it? There’s a certain level of amity or understanding among bloggers. There are no boundaries - social, religious or otherwise. Every blogger is just an individual, no discrimination. And this is a sense that gets inculcated into their daily lives. I feel hostility comes with misunderstanding. If people interact with others that are different from themselves, and get to know them, understand them, the world becomes a lot more friendly and definitely less hostile.

Top Five…now that’s a tough one.

1. Kajal - for her fiery passion towards writing. She’s an inspiration.
2. Mads - for her totally random posts that never fail to leave me with a smile.
3. Divsi - a very talented friend, her posts always leave me with a thought.
4. Stupidosaur - Just started following him, and his pieces are filled with satire, sarcasm, humor and what not!
5. Sapna Sapien - Lovely photography and each photo invokes different thoughts in different people.

Well, there was one poem Yaadein Hi Yaadein that I’d written dedicated to my childhood memories which was appreciated a lot by people. One person said that it made her forget everything except the emotion the poem portrayed. That was I guess the highest level of appreciation I’ve ever got.

It’s a beautiful country with kind and wonderful people. I want to visit Pakistan for the varied attractions. Balochistan, Sindh, there are so many. I’m an avid traveller and I love to visit places of natural and historical beauty.

Not yet. But I definitely look forward to it.

It’s a life cycle. It’s usually like a developing country is an adolescent teen still in his learning phase, slowly getting independent and on his own two feet, while a developed country is like the earning member of the family, the one with all the resources, most power and so on and so forth. As the teen grows, he becomes more and more like his dad. And in today’s time and age, the developing nations are growing faster and faster, in the rat race to reach the ultimate goal of becoming a full fledged developed nation.

Blogging has a great future ahead. It’s already picked up momentum and the world’s taken notice of this. Bloggers are being given more and more attention, taken more seriously. This spells a bright future for both blogging and bloggers alike. It’s a great way to express yourself and showcase your creative side.

My blogging life and personal and professional life are pretty different. I blog when I feel like it. Blogging’s like reading books. They let you escape. So it hardly ever interferes in my personal or professional life. In the positive sense, however, blogging has widened my interests and views, and improved my writing skills.

Long way to go. An MBA is in the pipeline for now. But I do want to write a book at one point of time in my life

Live long, love longer. That’s what builds peace and harmony. Even the little things in life like a smile to a stranger, a helping hand without the person asking, all build up to a wonderful world. All the best and God Bless You.

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